Yuguda, Suswam, Ngilari … governors who couldn’t make it to the senate

In what could be described as a political Tsunami, five incumbent governors have so far lost their bid to be elected into the senate at the expiration of their tenure in May.

The governors contested Saturday’s election on the platform of the ruling party but lost to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Apart from Ngilari, all others are serving their second term in office.

Gabriel Suswam, governor of Benue state, lost to Barnabas Gemade, who defected to the opposition party after losing the ticket of the party to Suswam during the primary election of December 2014.

Gemade, a former chairman of the PDP, retained his seat at the Benue north east senatorial district by polling 140, 715 votes ahead of Suswam, who secured 118, 603 votes.

Isa Yuguda, governor of Bauchi state, also lost his bid to emerge as the senator of Bauchi south senatorial district, as Ali Wakili, a retired comptroller-general of customs, scored a total of 341, 708 votes ahead of Yuguda, who polled 115,575 votes.

Bala Ngilari, governor of Adamawa state, who was eyeing the Adamawa north senatorial district was trounced by Binta Masi, former member of the house of representatives and chairman of APC in the state.

Sai’du Dakingari, governor of Kebbi state, lost to Bello Argungu, a lesser known politician.

Argungu secured 139,197 and Dakingari only managed to poll 70,148 votes.

Similarly, Babaginda Aliyu, lost to David Umaru by a wide margin. Umaru had 149,443 against Aliyu’s 46,459.

However, five of their colleagues have been able to secure positions in the fifth senate of the fourth republic.

They include Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Theodore Orji, (Abia); Aliyu Wammako, (Sokoto); Jonah Jang, (Plateau) and Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano).